Enrico Fermi - Biographical Enrico Fermi The Nobel Prize in Physics 1938 Enrico Fermi Share this: Enrico Fermi - Biographical Enrico Fermi was born in Rome on 29th September, 1901, the son of Alberto Fermi, a Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Communications, and Ida de Gattis. He attended a local grammar school, and his early aptitude for mathematics and physics was recognized and encouraged by his father's colleagues, among them A. Amidei. In 1918, he won a fellowship of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. He spent four years at the University of Pisa, gaining his doctor's degree in physics in 1922, with Professor Puccianti. Soon afterwards, in 1923, he was awarded a scholarship from the Italian Government and spent some months with Professor Max Born in Göttingen. With a Rockefeller Fellowship, in 1924, he moved to Leyden to work with P.

Ehrenfest, and later that same year he returned to Italy to occupy for two years (1924-1926) the post of Lecturer in Mathematical Physics and Mechanics at the University of Florence. In 1926, Fermi discovered the statistical laws, nowadays known as the «Fermi statistics», governing the particles subject to Pauli's exclusion principle (now referred to as «fermions», in contrast with «bosons» which obey the Bose-Einstein statistics). In 1927, Fermi was elected Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Rome (a post which he retained until 1938, when he - immediately after the receipt of the Nobel Prize - emigrated to America, primarily to escape Mussolini's fascist dictatorship). During the early years of his career in Rome he occupied himself with electrodynamic problems and with theoretical investigations on various spectroscopic phenomena. But a capital turning-point came when he directed his attention from the outer electrons towards the atomic nucleus itself. In 1934, he evolved the ß-decay theory, coalescing previous work on radiation theory with Pauli's idea of the neutrino.

Following the discovery by Curie and Joliot of artificial radioactivity (1934), he demonstrated that nuclear transformation occurs in almost every element subjected to neutron bombardment. This work resulted in the discovery of slow neutrons that same year, leading to the discovery of nuclear fission and the production of elements lying beyond what was until then the Periodic Table. In 1938, Fermi was without doubt the greatest expert on neutrons, and he continued his work on this topic on his arrival in the United States, where he was soon appointed Professor of Physics at Columbia University, N.Y. (1939-1942). Upon the discovery of fission, by Hahn and Strassmann early in 1939, he immediately saw the possibility of emission of secondary neutrons and of a chain reaction. He proceeded to work with tremendous enthusiasm, and directed a classical series of experiments which ultimately led to the atomic pile and the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. This took place in Chicago on December 2, 1942 - on a squash court situated beneath Chicago's stadium.

He subsequently played an important part in solving the problems connected with the development of the first atomic bomb (He was one of the leaders of the team of physicists on the Manhattan Project for the development of nuclear energy and the atomic bomb.) In 1944, Fermi became an American citizen, and at the end of the war (1946) he accepted a professorship at the Institute for Nuclear Studies of the University of Chicago, a position which he held until his untimely death in 1954. There he turned his attention to high-energy physics, and led investigations into the pion-nucleon interaction. During the last years of his life Fermi occupied himself with the problem of the mysterious origin of cosmic rays, thereby developing a theory, according to which a universal magnetic field - acting as a giant accelerator - would account for the fantastic energies present in the cosmic ray particles. Professor Fermi was the author of numerous papers both in theoretical and experimental physics. His most important contributions were: "Sulla quantizzazione del gas perfetto monoatomico", Rend. Accad. Naz. Lincei, 1935 (also in Z.

Phys., 1936), concerning the foundations of the statistics of the electronic gas and of the gases made of particles that obey the Pauli Principle. Several papers published in Rend. Accad. Naz. Lincei, 1927-28, deal with the statistical model of the atom (Thomas-Fermi atom model) and give a semiquantitative method for the calculation of atomic properties. A resumé of this work was published by Fermi in the volume: Quantentheorie und Chemie, edited by H. Falkenhagen, Leipzig, 1928. "Uber die magnetischen Momente der AtomKerne", Z. Phys., 1930, is a quantitative theory of the hyperfine structures of spectrum lines. The magnetic moments of some nuclei are deduced therefrom. "Tentativo di una teoria dei raggi ß", Ricerca Scientifica, 1933 (also Z. Phys., 1934) proposes a theory of the emission of ß-rays, based on the hypothesis, first proposed by Pauli, of the existence of the neutrino.

The Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Fermi for his work on the artificial radioactivity produced by neutrons, and for nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons. The first paper on this subject "Radioattività indotta dal bombardamento di neutroni" was published by him in Ricerca Scientifica, 1934. All the work is collected in the following papers by himself and various collaborators: "Artificial radioactivity produced by neutron bombardment", Proc. Roy. Soc., 1934 and 1935; "On the absorption and diffusion of slow neutrons", Phys. Rev., 1936. The theoretical problems connected with the neutron are discussed by Fermi in the paper "Sul moto dei neutroni lenti", Ricerca Scientfica, 1936. His Collected Papers are being published by a Committee under the Chairmanship of his friend and former pupil, Professor E. Segrè (Nobel Prize winner 1959, with O. Chamberlain, for the discovery of the antiproton).

Fermi was member of several academies and learned societies in Italy and abroad (he was early in his career, in 1929, chosen among the first 30 members of the Royal Academy of Italy). As lecturer he was always in great demand (he has also given several courses at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and Stanford University, Calif.). He was the first recipient of a special award of $50,000 - which now bears his name - for work on the atom. Professor Fermi married Laura Capon in 1928. They had one son Giulio and one daughter Nella. His favourite pastimes were walking, mountaineering, and winter sports. He died in Chicago on 28th November, 1954. From Nobel Lectures , Physics 1922-1941, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1965 This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel . It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures . To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

Enrico Fermi | Biography | atomicarchive.com Biographies Enrico Fermi (1901 - 1954) Enrico Fermi was born on September 29, 1901, in Rome, Italy. At age 14, he became interested in the study of physics as a way of coping with his grief over losing his brother Giulio during minor surgery. In 1922, he graduated with a doctorate from the prestigious "Sculoa Normale Superiore" of Pisa, a special university-college for selected gifted students. In 1923, Fermi was awarded a scholarship from the Italian government and spent several months with Professor Max Born in Gottingen. In 1924, with a Rockefeller Fellowship, he moved to Leyden to work with P. Ehrenfest, and later that year he returned to Italy to occupy the post of Lecturer in Mathematical Physics and Mechanics at the University of Florence, a position that he held for two years.

In 1926, Fermi discovered the statistical laws, nowadays known as the "Fermi statistics," governing the particles subject to Pauli's exclusion principles (now referred to as fermions, in contrast with bosons, which obey the Bose-Einstein statistics). The next year, Fermi was elected Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Rome, a post that he retained until 1938 when he emigrated to America, primarily to escape Mussolini's fascist dictatorship. Fermi was also awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons." During Fermi's early career in Rome, he focused on electrodynamic problems and theoretical investigations on various spectroscopic phenomena, but soon turned his attention from the outer electrons towards the atomic nucleus itself. In 1934, he evolved the beta-decay theory, coalescing previous work on radiation theory with Pauli's idea of the neutrino.

Following the discovery by Curie and Joliot of artificial radioactivity that year, Fermi demonstrated that nuclear transformation occurs in almost every element subjected to neutron bombardment. This work led to the discovery of slow neutrons, which led to the discovery of nuclear fission and the production of elements lying beyond what was until then the Periodic Table. In 1939, Fermi was appointed Professor of Physics at New York's Columbia University, a position that he held until 1942. His experiments during this time led to the atomic pile (nuclear reactor) and the first controlled nuclear chain reaction, which took place in Chicago on December 2, 1942, on a volleyball field beneath Chicago's stadium. He then became one of the leaders of the team of physicists on the Manhattan Project. After World War II, Fermi accepted a professorship at the Institute for Nuclear Studies of the University of Chicago, a position that he held until he died from stomach cancer in Chicago on November 28, 1954. Element 100 was named fermium (Fm) in his honor.

He and his wife, Laura Capon, whom he had married in 1928, had a son, Giulio, and a daughter, Nella. Related Photograph The 11 Youngest Nobel Prize Winners – Scientists The 11 Youngest Nobel Prize Winners – Scientists By The Doc Here are the 11 youngest winners of a scientific Nobel Prize, with a quick, interesting ‘did you know’ fact about each of them. And also: • The teenager whose work won a Nobel Prize in physics. • The youngest woman to win a science Nobel Prize. • The youngest winner in each of the three science categories: • Physics The 11 Youngest Nobel Laureates Age 25: Lawrence Bragg Australian-born British physicist. Lawrence Bragg won the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics for ‘services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays.’ Did you know? While working as a physics professor in London, Bragg took part-time employment as a gardener, because he enjoyed gardening so much. Advertisements German theoretical physicist. Werner Heisenberg won the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics for ‘the creation of quantum mechanics…’ Did you know?

With his uncertainty principle, Heisenberg showed we can never know everything about a particle exactly. Although Albert Einstein did not like it, Heisenberg showed that God is continuously playing dice with the universe. Age 31: Paul A.M. Dirac British theoretical physicist. Paul Dirac won the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics for ‘the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory.’ Did you know? Dirac was a man of few words. He only spoke when it was necessary. In his highly readable biography of Richard Feynman, James Gleick reports a journalist’s interview with Dirac: Journalist: “Now Doctor, will you give me in a few words the low-down on all your investigations?” Dirac: “No.” Journalist: “Good. Will it be alright if I put it this way – ‘Professor Dirac solves all the problems of mathematical physics, but is unable to find a better way of figuring out Babe Ruth’s batting average’?” Dirac: “Yes.” Age 31: Carl D. Anderson American physicist. Carl Anderson won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics for his ‘discovery of the positron.’ Did you know?

In addition to discovering the positron in 1932, four years later, Anderson discovered the muon. Age 31: Tsung-Dao Lee Chinese-born American physicist. Tsung-Dao Lee won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for his ‘penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles.’ Did you know? Lee’s Ph.D. supervisor was Enrico Fermi, who won the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics at the age of 37. Age 32: Rudolf Mössbauer German physicist. Rudolf Mössbauer won the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics for his ‘researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name.’ Did you know? Mössbauer discovered the Mössbauer effect when, as a Ph.D. student, he ignored his professor’s advice about the experimental equipment he should use. Age 32: Frederick G. Banting Canadian surgeon and medical research scientist. Frederick G.

Banting won the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for ‘the discovery of insulin.’ Did you know? Banting failed his first year at university. During World War 1, he was awarded the Military Cross for his heroic actions in helping wounded men. Age 33: Brian D. Josephson British theoretical physicist. Brian Josephson won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics for ‘theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects.’ Image courtesy Brian D. Josephson. Did you know? Josephson was still a Ph.D. student, aged 22, when he did the work that led to his Nobel Prize. Age 33: Joshua Lederberg American molecular biologist. Joshua Lederberg won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for ‘discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria.’ Did you know? Joshua Lederberg graduated from high school when he was 15 and was awarded his university degree when he was 19. Age 34: Donald A. Glaser American physicist.

Donald Glaser won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics for ‘the invention of the bubble chamber.’ Did you know? Glaser was not interested in just physics; he switched fields and became a professor of molecular biology. Age 34: James Watson American molecular biologist. James Watson won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for ‘discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.’ Did you know? Watson was only 15 when he enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. Polish chemist/physicist. Marie Curie won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for ‘researches on the radiation phenomena.’ Did you know? Marie Curie also won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She is the only person to have won both prizes. Youngest age at which Nobel Prize Winning Work was Carried Out Age 19: Subramanyan Chandrasekhar Indian-born American physicist.

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics for ‘his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars.’ He carried out the work aged just 19 on a ship traveling from India to Britain to begin working for a Ph.D. in physics. Did you know? Chandrasekhar’s uncle was C.V. Raman, who won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics at the age of 42. Enrico Fermi's Daughter Has Clear Memory of Atomic Age's Dawning : Science: Nella Fermi shared with her physicist father the conviction that the deadly bomb was an inevitable outcome of learning about the atom. - latimes YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home → Collections Enrico Fermi's Daughter Has Clear Memory of Atomic Age's Dawning : Science: Nella Fermi shared with her physicist father the conviction that the deadly bomb was an inevitable outcome of learning about the atom. January 08, 1995 |JOHN BARBOUR | ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO — She no longer had to wonder. Two atomic bombs obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki and ended World War II.

Her father and his fellow scientists had introduced the human race to a weapon capable of wiping out hundreds of thousands of lives in moments. It was a weapon that would hold the world in thrall forever. Nella Fermi finally realized what those weeks-long secret trips meant, why her father, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi, had a code name, Henry Farmer, and a bodyguard, and why they had lived all those wary years in Chicago and Los Alamos, N.M. It meant the end of secret lives for the families of the Manhattan Project, men, women and children. It meant sizing up the future in which the prospect of fiery death would always be just over the horizon. The atomic bomb shook the entire Earth when its meaning sank in. Some of the scientists who created it felt the guilt of its impact on humanity and immediately sought to ban the atom as a weapon. But for Nella Fermi, the oldest child of Enrico and Laura Fermi, there were never any recriminations, never any lingering questions, never a sense of guilt. She shared with her father the conviction that the bomb was an inevitable outcome of learning about the atom.

A half-century later, she remembers a letter from Fermi's sister "in which she said it had been reported in the Italian media that Enrico had been involved in the bomb, and she trusted that this was not so." "My reaction was amazement because at the time they were heroes, no question about it. "Most people felt this was something that needed to be done." It was the only hint of criticism she can remember. Even before the first bomb was dropped, scientists suggested that a demonstration of its power might suffice to end the war, without loss of life. After the bombs were dropped, the scientists who made it were of mixed feelings. Proud at achieving their goals, comforted by the end of the war, most felt a tremendous responsibility to control its subsequent use. In fact, many of the atomic scientists started peace movements on their own. A group of scientists at the University of Chicago began a journal called "The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists." It still has a doomsday clock on the cover signifying the Cold War crises and the nearness of nuclear warfare. When it first appeared, the clock's hands showed eight minutes to midnight. When the Soviets fired their H-Bomb, it was reduced to three minutes to midnight.

With the end of the Cold War, the hands were set back. "A lot of scientists were in fact worried that this was not the weapon to end all weapons, but the weapon to end all mankind," said Nella, now 62. When she was in her early teens, she guessed about what her father was doing. She had read something in a physics textbook that suggested that machines to come would run on nuclear energy. She thought of engines for battleships or submarines. "I knew my father was an atomic scientist," she said. "I knew he was doing secret war work. I knew that all these other guys around were physicists. It didn't take any great leap of the imagination. But my mother being older and wiser . . . I think it's reasonable speculation (that she knew about the bomb)." But, she insists, her father never told his wife or children, such was his loyalty to his new country. Nor did the subject come up. It was a strange world for a young girl and teen-ager. Her famous father would disappear for weeks at a time to work in secret laboratories where people had code names. The code names often would sit themselves down at the Fermi dining table.

One was the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, code-named Nicholas Baker. Everyone called him Uncle Nick. Also at the table, especially on Sunday nights, were Fermi's students, some of whom went on in peaceful times to earn Nobel Prizes of their own. But for Nella, snatched from the anti-Semitism and saber-rattling of Mussolini's Italy, it was an adult world, often frightening and lonely. In Rome in 1938 there was talk of war in the air. "My father came home with a bunch of gas masks one day. And that was scary. He didn't have one for (baby brother) Judd because he couldn't find one small enough." She and her 3-year-old brother would see their childhoods rearranged. Their father was from a Roman Catholic peasant family; their mother was upper-middle class and Jewish. There were three reasons the Fermi family left Italy. The first was the promulgating of anti-Semitic laws by Mussolini, the second the fear of war. The third was Fermi's Nobel Prize which facilitated their escape to America via Stockholm and England. Their U.S.

itinerary began in New York, then happy days for her in a suburb in New Jersey absorbing American language and culture. But her father lived in a security web. As an enemy immigrant, this Nobel laureate had to take an aptitude test in which two of the questions were to add 15 and 27, and to divide 29 by 2. Enrico_Fermi Enrico_Fermi Enrico Fermi This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007) Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi in the 1940s Born November 28 1954 (aged 53) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Italy (1901–1938) U.S.

(1938–1954) Citizenship Italian (1901–1938) American (1944–1954) Field Physicist Institutions Scuola Normale Superiore in PisaUniversity of GöttingenUniversity of LeidenUniversity of Rome La SapienzaColumbia UniversityUniversity of Chicago Alma mater Notable students Owen Chamberlain Geoffrey Chew Mildred Dresselhaus Jerome I. Friedman Marvin Leonard Goldberger Tsung-Dao Lee James Rainwater Marshall Rosenbluth Arthur Rosenfeld Emilio Segrè Jack Steinberger Sam Treiman Known for New radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, Controlled nuclear chain reaction, Fermi-Dirac statistics Theory of beta decay Notable prizes Nobel Prize for Physics (1938) Enrico Fermi (September 29, 1901 – November 28, 1954) was an Italian physicist most noted for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics .

Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938 for his work on induced radioactivity and is today regarded as one of the top scientists of the 20th century. Contents Biography Physics in Rome Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy. His father was Alberto Fermi, a Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Communications, and his mother was Ida de Gattis, an elementary school teacher. As a young boy he enjoyed learning physics and mathematics and shared his interests with his older brother, Giulio. When Giulio died unexpectedly of a throat abscess in 1915, Enrico was distraught, and immersed himself into scientific study to distract himself. According to his own account, each day he would walk in front of the hospital where Giulio died until he became inured to the pain. Later, Enrico befriended another scientifically inclined student named Enrico Persico, and the two together engaged in scientific projects such as building gyroscopes, and measuring the magnetic field of the earth. Fermi's interest in physics was further encouraged when a friend of his father's gave him several books on physics and mathematics, which he read and assimilated.

Fermi received his undergraduate and doctoral degree from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. There was an entrance exam which candidates had to take in order to enter the prestigious institute, which included an essay. For his essay on the given theme Characteristics of Sound, 17-year-old Fermi chose to derive and solve the Fourier analysis based partial differential equation for waves on a string. The examiner interviewed Fermi and concluded that his essay would have been commendable even for a doctoral degree. At the Scuola Normale Superiore, Fermi teamed up with a fellow student named Franco Rasetti with whom he use to indulge in light hearted pranks. Later, Rasetti became Fermi's close friend and collaborator. Fermi's Ph.D advisor was Luigi Puccianti. In 1924 Fermi spent a semester in Göttingen, and then stayed for a few months in Leiden with Paul Ehrenfest. From January 1925 to the autumn of 1926 he stayed at the University of Florence. In this period he wrote his work on the Fermi-Dirac statistics .

When he was only 24 years old, Fermi took a professorship in Rome (the first for atomic physics in Italy, created for him by professor Orso Mario Corbino, director of the Institute of Physics). Corbino helped Fermi in selecting his team, which soon was joined by notable minds like Edoardo Amaldi, Bruno Pontecorvo, Franco Rasetti and Emilio Segrè . For the theoretical studies only, Ettore Majorana also took part in what was soon nicknamed "the Via Panisperna boys" (after the name of the road in which the Institute had its labs). The group went on with its now famous experiments, but in 1933 Rasetti left Italy for Canada and the United States, Pontecorvo went to France and Segrè left to teach in Palermo. During their time in Rome, Fermi and his group made important contributions to many practical and theoretical aspects of physics. Some of these include the theory of beta decay , and the discovery of slow neutrons, which was to prove pivotal for the working of nuclear reactors. His group also systematically bombarded elements with neutrons , and during their experiments with uranium , narrowly missed observing nuclear fission .

At that time, fission was thought to be improbable, if not impossible, mostly on theoretical grounds. While people expected elements with higher atomic number to form from neutron bombardment of lighter elements, nobody expected neutrons to have enough energy to actually split a heavier atom into two light element fragments. However, the chemist Ida Noddack had criticised Fermi's work and had suggested that some of his experiments could have produced lighter elements. At the time, Fermi dismissed this possibility on the basis of calculations. Fermi was well-known for his simplicity in solving problems. Whenever possible, he avoided complicated mathematics and obtained quick results based on order of magnitude estimates. This quality was acknowledged by and influenced many physicists who worked with him, such as Hans Bethe, who spent two semesters working with Fermi in the early 1930s. Fermi also meticulously recorded his calculations in notebooks, and later used to solve many new problems that he encountered based on these earlier known problems. When Fermi submitted his famous paper on beta decay to the prestigious journal Nature, the journal's editor turned it down because "it contained speculations which were too remote from reality".

Thus, Fermi saw the theory published in Italian and in German before it was published in English. Nature eventually did publish Fermi's report on beta decay on January 16, 1939. He never forgot this experience of being ahead of his time, and used to tell his protégés: "Never be first; try to be second". Nobel Prize & The Manhattan Project Fermi remained in Rome until 1938. In 1938, Fermi won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his "demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation , and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons". After Fermi received the Nobel prize in Stockholm, he, his wife Laura, and their children emigrated to New York. This was mainly because of the anti-Semitic laws promulgated by the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini which threatened Laura, who was an Italian Jewess. Soon after his arrival in New York, Fermi began working at Columbia University. At Columbia, Fermi verified the initial nuclear fission experiment of Hahn and Fritz Strassmann (with the help of Booth and Dunning).

Fermi then went to the University of Chicago and began studies that led to the construction of the first nuclear pile Chicago Pile-1. Fermi recalled the beginning of the project in a speech given in 1954 when he retired as President of the American Physical Society: "I remember very vividly the first month, January, 1939, that I started working at the Pupin Laboratories because things began happening very fast. In that period, Niels Bohr was on a lecture engagement at the Princeton University and I remember one afternoon Willis Lamb came back very excited and said that Bohr had leaked out great news. The great news that had leaked out was the discovery of fission and at least the outline of its interpretation. Then, somewhat later that same month, there was a meeting in Washington where the possible importance of the newly discovered phenomenon of fission was first discussed in semi-jocular earnest as a possible source of nuclear power." In August of 1939 Leó Szilárd prepared and Albert Einstein signed the famous letter warning President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the probability that the Nazis were planning to build an atomic bomb.

Because of Hitler's September 1 invasion of Poland, it was October before they could arrange for the letter to be personally delivered. Roosevelt was concerned enough that the Uranium Committee was assembled and awarded Columbia University the first atomic energy funding of US$ 6,000. However, due to bureaucratic fears of foreigners doing secret research, the money was not actually issued until Szilárd implored Einstein to send a second letter to the president in the spring of 1940. The money was used in studies which led to the first nuclear reactor — Chicago Pile-1, a massive "atomic pile" of graphite bricks and uranium fuel which went critical on December 2, 1942, built in a hard racquets court under Stagg Field, the football stadium at the University of Chicago. Due to a mistranslation, Soviet reports on Enrico Fermi claimed that his work was performed in a converted "pumpkin field" instead of a "squash court", squash being an offshoot of hard racquets [1]. This experiment was a landmark in the quest for energy, and it was typical of Fermi's brilliance. Every step had been carefully planned, every calculation meticulously done by him.

When the first self sustained nuclear chain reaction was achieved, a coded phone call was made to one of the leaders of the Manhattan Project, James Conant : 'The Italian navigator has landed in the new world... The natives were very friendly'. The chain-reacting pile was important not only for its help in assessing the properties of fission — needed for understanding the internal workings of an atomic bomb — but because it would serve as a pilot plant for the massive reactors which would be created in Hanford, Washington , which would then be used to produce the plutonium needed for the bombs used at the Trinity site and Nagasaki. Eventually Fermi and Szilárd's reactor work was folded into the Manhattan Project. Fermi moved to Los Alamos in the later stages of the Manhattan Project to serve as a general consultant. He was sitting in the control room of the Hanford B Reactor when it first went critical in 1944. His broad knowledge of many fields of physics was useful in solving problems that were of an interdisciplinary nature. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America in 1944.

Post-War work In Fermi's 1954 address to the APS he also said, "Well, this brings us to Pearl Harbor. That is the time when I left Columbia University, and after a few months of commuting between Chicago and New York, eventually moved to Chicago to keep up the work there, and from then on, with a few notable exceptions, the work at Columbia was concentrated on the isotope separation phase of the atomic energy project, initiated by Booth, Dunning and Urey about 1940". Fermi was widely regarded as the only physicist of the twentieth century who excelled both theoretically and experimentally (Snow, 1981) (see link below in 'References'). The well-known historian of physics, C. P. Snow, says about him, "If Fermi had been born a few years earlier, one could well imagine him discovering Rutherford's atomic nucleus, and then developing Bohr's theory of the hydrogen atom. If this sounds like hyperbole, anything about Fermi is likely to sound like hyperbole". Fermi's ability and success stemmed as much from his appraisal of the art of the possible, as from his innate skill and intelligence.

He disliked complicated theories, and while he had great mathematical ability, he would never use it when the job could be done much more simply. He was famous for getting quick and accurate answers to problems which would stump other people. An instance of this was seen during the first atomic bomb test in New Mexico on July 16 1945. As the blast wave reached him, Fermi dropped bits of paper. By measuring the distance they were blown, he could compare to a previously computed table and thus estimate the bomb energy yield. He estimated that the blast was greater than 10 kilotons of TNT , the measured result was 18.6. (Rhodes, page 674). Later on, this method of getting approximate and quick answers through back of the envelope calculations became informally known as the 'Fermi method'. Fermi's most disarming trait was his great modesty, and his ability to do any kind of work, whether creative or routine. It was this quality that made him popular and liked among people of all strata, from other Nobel Laureates to technicians.

Henry DeWolf Smyth, who was Chairman of the Princeton Physics department, had once invited Fermi over to do some experiments with the Princeton cyclotron. Walking into the lab one day, Smyth saw the distinguished scientist helping a graduate student move a table, under another student's directions. Another time, a Du Pont executive made a visit to see him at Columbia. Not finding him either in his lab or his office, the executive was surprised to find the Nobel Laureate in the machine shop, cutting sheets of tin with a big pair of shears. After the war, Fermi served for a short time on the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission, a scientific committee chaired by Robert Oppenheimer which advised the commission on nuclear matters and policy. After the detonation of the first Soviet fission bomb in August 1949, he, along with Isidor Rabi, wrote a strongly worded report for the committee which opposed the development of a hydrogen bomb on moral and technical grounds.

But Fermi also participated in preliminary work on the hydrogen bomb at Los Alamos as a consultant, and along with Stanislaw Ulam, calculated that the amount of tritium needed for Edward Teller's model of a thermonuclear weapon would be prohibitive, and a fusion reaction could not be assured to propagate even with this large quantity of tritium. In his later years, Fermi did important work in particle physics, especially related to pions and muons . He was also known to be an inspiring teacher at the University of Chicago, and was known for his attention to detail, simplicity, and careful preparation for a lecture. Later, his lecture notes, especially those for quantum mechanics, nuclear physics, and thermodynamics , were transcribed into books which are still in print. Also in these later years he mused about a proposition which is now referred to as the "Fermi Paradox".

This absurd contradiction or proposition is this: that with the billions and billions of star systems in the universe, one would think that intelligent life would have contacted our civilization by now; yet this has not happened since it takes only about 600 years for a civilization to reach potential for annihilating itself with weapons of mass-destruction as it grows in knowledge exponentially. Fermi died at age 53 of stomach cancer and was interred at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. Two of his graduate students who assisted him in working on or near the nuclear pile also died of cancer. Fermi and his team knew that such work carried considerable risk but they considered the outcome so vital that they forged ahead with little regard for their own personal safety. [1] As Eugene Wigner wrote: "Ten days before Fermi had died he told me, 'I hope it won't take long.' He had reconciled himself perfectly to his fate". A recent poll by Time magazine listed Fermi among the top twenty scientists of the century. The Fermilab particle accelerator and physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, is named after him in loving memory from the physics community.

Fermi 1 & Fermi 2 nuclear power plants in Newport, Michigan are also named after him, as are many schools such as Enrico Fermi High School in Enfield, Connecticut. In 1952, element 100 on the periodic table of elements was isolated from the debris of a nuclear test. In honor of Fermi's contributions to the scientific community, it was named fermium after him. Since the 1950s, the United States Atomic Energy Commission has named its highest honour, the Fermi Award, after him. Recipients of the award include well-known scientists like Robert Oppenheimer, Freeman Dyson, John Wheeler and Hans Bethe. Personal life Enrico Fermi had two siblings. He was very close to his brother Giulio, who had been only a year older than Enrico. In 1928, Fermi married Laura Capon and later had a son Giulio ("Judd") Fermi (1936–1997) and a daughter Nella Fermi Weiner (1931–1995). His son later worked with the Nobel laureate Max Perutz on the structure of hemoglobin .

Throughout his life, Enrico was a firm believer of Christianity. Patents U.S. Patent 2,206,634 — Process for the Production of Radioactive Substances, filed October, 1935, issued July, 1940 U.S. Patent 2,524,379 — Neutron Velocity Selector, filed September, 1945, issued October, 1950 U.S. Patent 2,708,656 — Neutronic reactor, with Leo Szilard, filed December, 1944, issued May, 1955 U.S. Patent 2,768,134 — Testing Material in a Neutronic Reactor, filed August, 1945, issued October, 1956 U.S. Patent 2,780,595 — Test Exponential Pile, filed May, 1944, issued February 1957 U.S.

Patent 2,798,847 — Method of Operating a Neutronic Reactor, filed December 1944, issued July, 1957 U.S. Patent 2,807,581 — Neutronic Reactor, filed October 1945, issued September, 1957 U.S. Patent 2,807,727 — Neutronic Reactor Shield, filed January 1946, issued September, 1957 U.S. Patent 2,813,070 — Method of Sustaining a Neutronic Chain Reacting System, filed November, 1945, issued November, 1957 U.S. Patent 2,836,554 — Air Cooled Neutronic Reactor U.S. Patent 2,837,477 — Chain Reacting System U.S. Patent 2,852,461 — Neutronic Reactor U.S. Patent 2,931,762 — Neutronic Reactor U.S.

Patent 2,969,307 — Method of Testing Thermal Neutron Fissionable Material for Purity, filed November 1945, issued January 1961 See also The Nobel Prize-winning Italian scientist who pioneered nuclear reactions was The Nobel Prize-winning Italian scientist who pioneered nuclear reactions was The Nobel Prize-winning Italian scientist who pioneered nuclear reactions was: Enrico Fermi. Read more here : Expert answered| indi |Points 278| The Nobel Prize-winning Italian scientist who pioneered nuclear reactions was New answers There are no new answers. Comments The world's most widely grown food crop is: WHEAT. Added 2/5/2014 7:01:48 AM Weegy: The Nobel Prize-winning Italian scientist who pioneered nuclear reactions was ENRICO FERMI. (More) Question Updated 262 days ago|5/2/2016 4:41:43 AM 1 Answer/Comment One method used to determine the volume of solids and liquids is displacement. TRUE.

Added 262 days ago|5/2/2016 4:41:43 AM This answer has been confirmed as correct, not copied, and helpful. Confirmed by jeifunk [5/2/2016 4:51:43 AM] One method used to determine the volume of solids and liquids is displacement. TRUE. Added 4/22/2015 6:10:17 AM This answer has been added to the Weegy Knowledgebase 26,794,575 questions answered Weegy: 2x^2 - 10x + 8 = 2(x - 1)(x - 4) User: Factor p 2 - 2p - 24. (p - 3)(p + 8) (p + 6)(p - 4) (p - 6)(p + 4) ...

1/19/2017 9:59:50 AM| 2 Answers Weegy: The answer for x^2 + 29x - 30 is (x-1) (x+30) User: What is the product of (n - 8)(n + 2)? Weegy: (n + 8)(n - ... 1/19/2017 11:21:30 AM| 2 Answers

Question: What was the first name of the Nobel Prize winning scientist (1901-1954)Fermi?
Answer: ENRICO